Thursday, December 22, 2011

Futurama Vol. 6

***DISCLAIMER*** The following
review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I encourage you to
do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion, that's fine. To
each their own. I am just sharing my opinions and perspective. Finally,
the reviews are given on a scale of 1-5. 1, of course, being terrible.
2, being not great. 3, being okay. 4, being good and 5, being epic!

Futurama Vol. 6 - 5 out of 5

In case you can't read the caption on the pic, this is creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen.

I'm a HUGE Futurama fan. When it debuted in 1999, I instantly fell in love with it and stated that Matt Groening and David X. Cohen created something that surpassed the megatrain of a hit The Simpsons. That's right, I love Futurama more than The Simpsons--hate me for it! The Simpsons is hilarious (well, it's dropped in quality quite a bit since the 90s but it is still better than 90% of other comedies on TV) but being that I'm a gigantic nerd, the sci-fi references and the science jokes that composed Futurama caused it to be one of the best things I've ever seen.

Those are a lot of shiny metal asses to bite.

Fry and Leela's will they/won't they romance is stillhere.

However, I was heartbroken with the way Fox treated the show. Unlike The Simpsons, Futurama contained more complex and witty humor than the family from Springfield had but it never got the respect it deserved from the network that Matt Groening helped created. Infinite sadness struck me when the show went off the air but having each season on DVD eased the pain...then the movies came out and the show I loved so much returned with a tease of it continuing in its series form on Comedy Central. As you know, it returned last year and Vol. 6 is the latest DVD release.

Although I can relate to Fry on a lot of things, Zoidberg is very much one of my favorite characters.

There's something both horrifying and arousing about Scruffy as a woman.

If you've never seen the show, the series is about a man name Phillip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy from our time who is accidentally frozen and wakes up in the future. He ends up working for a delivery service and gets into (I hesitate to use the phrase) zany adventures with the Captain of the delivery ship and the love of Fry's life, the one-eyed mutant; Turanga Leela, the foul-mouth, hard-drinking and hard-partying bending robot; Bender, the incompetent but hilarious alien crab; Dr. Zoidberg, and the man who's long past geriatric; the Professor Hubert Farnsworth.

These type of brilliant gags are loaded in the background of the show.

This volume sees the crew of Planet Express take on a four-dimensional space whale, Fry becoming a cop and investigating crimes that haven't even taken place yet, Bender learning how to self-replicate, Leela making a children's show and the entire cast learning what it's like to be a member of the opposite gender. But all this can't hold a candle to this single moment...

I'll be honest, I was a little disappointed the DVD didn't come with an unedited audio track of this scene.

The show's animation is unlike anything else on TV.

As every other season, the show continues to be one of the best animated shows aired. The writers craft episodes that not only are funny but can tell stories filled with unbelievably amazing characters that are interesting, smart and sometimes even pull at the heartstrings (I dare you to watch the episode Jurassic Bark and NOT cry). The animators and artist prove that they are the only ones in the industry that can seamlessly blend 2D and 3D animation together without one of them sticking out like some sort of sore appendage. Their work is nothing short of beautiful.

Hats off to the writers and their ability to parody sci-fi films in a way no one else has...I wonder what that homeless dude is going to do to that Lightcycle trail...

John Di Maggio (Bender) and Billy West (Fry) in action.

Let's not forget the hard work of talented voice actors who bring such brilliant characters like Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, the Professor, Bender Bending Rodriguez, Phillip J. Fry and Leela to life. People like Peg Bundy herself Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio, Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Phil LaMarr, David Herman and so many more that I could go on and on with and bore the living shit out of you--yet, you still wouldn't have been half as bored as you would be sitting through Paranormal Activity.

The show even has amazing guest stars as Dan Castellaneta returning as the Robot Devil.

Futurama as anime characters is a recipefor hilarity!

Unlike most television show collections on DVD, Futurama volumes are always filled with interesting extras--and I don't mean crappy ones like outtakes that are usually 90 minutes of the cast of a sitcom getting "the giggles" and being in situations that are only funny if you are on-set at the time it happens. Also unlike other television shows on DVD, Futurama contains very interesting and insightful commentary on each and every episode. The crew that works on the show goes through the process of creating each episode from when it is nothing but a thought in a writers head to the point it is polished all pretty-like and put on the air. Not to mention the cast and crew commentary offers up some laughs and great stories that are just as funny as the show itself. Futurama is, without a doubt, one of my top shows I watch and, in my opinion, one of the best things to ever be put on TV.

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About Me

I'm a geek, an atheist (who is also an ordained reverend), a peanut butter and jelly enthusiast, a man who shares the same name with a popular character from "Parks & Rec" and feels he can't live up to the awesomeness of the fictional character, was proudly banned from Reddit, an occasional Shakespearean performer, and a stand up comic.
Have any questions, recommendations or wanna share any theories on various movies? Email me at RevRonMovies@gmail.com and I'll talk about them on my new Q&A segment!